BRIGADE INSIGHT - Brigade Group

22
SNIPPETS
The plague in Indore
Geddes came to Indore as an advisor when the
city was stricken with the plague. He trampled
through crowded lanes and dirty river banks,
marking on a map places that posed the most
serious threats to public health. The sight of
any white man with a map left local people
fearful of what demolition may be ordered in
the interests of plague control. But the sight
of Geddes seemed to leave them positively
terrified. Geddes asked his Indian assistant
why people shrank from him in such horror.
After much diplomatic evasion, his assistant
finally revealed that they thought Geddes to
be “the old Sahib that brings the plague”.
That very afternoon Geddes went to the
Home Minister of the ruling prince of Indore
and, after explaining the problem, asked to
be made ‘Maharaja for a Day’. Given the dire
situation, consent was granted and Geddes
went on to enlist the enthusiastic support of
Indore’s mayor, “an able Brahmin doctor”.
An imaginative campaign
Geddes proceeded to launch an imaginative
campaign. News was spread throughout the
city that a new kind of pageant would be held
on Deepavali day. The grand festival procession,
the biggest feature of the celebration,
would not follow the old route through the
city. Instead, it would travel only along streets
where houses had been cleaned or repaired.
A Hindu priest and a Mullah were enlisted to
lead clean up efforts, repair streets outside
temples and mosques and plant trees. Free
removal of rubbish was advertised. In the six
weeks prior to the great day, over 6000 loads
of rubbish were carted away from homes and
courtyards (“with much inconvenience to the
rats formerly housed therein”). Plague spreading
rats were trapped by the thousands. A
wave of housecleaning, painting and repairing
swept through the city—after all, everyone
wanted the honour of having the procession
on their street.
The procession
Geddes planned the actual procession with
equal wisdom. When the great day finally
arrived—the day when he was Maharaja—the
procession was magnificent.
First came the procession of the State,
Maharaja for a Day
Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932)
The Father of Town Planning
Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) was
a Scottish biologist, known also for
his innovative thinking in the fields of
biology, botany, town planning, sociology,
politics, literature and education.
Geddes’ ideas had a worldwide circulation:
he influenced urban planners,
architects, landscapers, sociologists …
in short, a host of 20th century thinkers.
Geddes’ interests took him across
the globe and he worked on innovative
urban renewal projects in different
countries. He worked extensively
in India, where he met Gandhi and
Tagore, with whom he exchanged
ideas both philosophical and practical.
Geddes provided planning consultancy
to the rulers of several Princely states
and is credited with creating plans for
50 Indian cities.
The story below concerns Geddes,
the plague and the city of Indore. Its
moral could be that terms like lateral
thinking and thinking-outside-the-box
are not as modern a concept as one
would believe ...
richly decorated. Then came symbols for
agriculture and the harvest, portrayed by chariots
carrying the Sun and Rain Gods. Elephants
carrying merchants on silver howdahs and bags
of cotton came next. They signified the importance
of the cotton crop, central to Indore’s
trade. The Goddess Lakshmi now made an
appearance, on a dazzling white elephant (in
the absence of a real white elephant, Geddes
had a grey one whitewashed).
After all these symbols of prosperity, the
procession turned somber. Sad music filled the
air. Now were unveiled scenes and symbols
of melancholy, grief and horror: weird figures,
demons, diseases, the sick and dying, sinister
swordsman and murderous raiders. Floats
carried models of slum homes and filthy hovels.
A 12-foot-high Giant of Death was followed
by a 6-foot-high rodent—the Rat of Plague—
covered with fleas (locusts dipped in ink and
mounted on quivering wires).
Plaque at Geddes' birthplace.
From broom to button-hole
These ‘instructive horrors’ were followed by
signs of hope—in the form of 400 sweepers
dressed in pristine white, carrying flowerdecorated
brooms and accompanied by gaily
painted carts drawn by clean, brightly bedecked
oxen. Every sweeper sported a brand new
turban in the colours of the State. In a show
of unity and equality, every state employee
(including the mayor himself), wore a similar
turban. Geddes went to meet the leader of
the sweepers and, taking a marigold from the
old man’s broom, fitted it into his buttonhole.
The gesture drew cheers. The Mayor later told
him it was a brilliant move; one that he himself
could not have done, being a Brahmin and
bound by caste rules, unlike an European.
The last part of the procession now came into sight: a
veritable army of civil servants, vanguard to a new Goddess
created for the occasion: the Goddess of Indore City.
Following the Goddess were floats of some of Indore’s
finest buildings and of the fine homes that would soon
replace slum dwellings. Then came vehicles carrying all
manner of craftsmen, acting out their parts with great
enthusiasm. The procession ended with fruit-filled carts and
thousands of Tulsi plants (known for their antiseptic value),
which were distributed to the excited audience that had
lined The Way.
Indore: The chowk, or square, before the palace of the Rajah—from a drawing by Mr W. Carpenter.
resplendent with music, cavalry, camelry, elephantry, infantry and artillery.
This was followed by a procession of the maharaja’s best horses,
The bonfire!
The day ended appropriately: with the Giant of Dirt and
the Rat of Plague being destroyed in a huge bonfire.
Coming to the real and more lasting results of the procession:
from being infested with plague, Indore was now
invested with a new-found sense of hope and pride.
The plague went away; partly because of the clean-up
and, maybe, partly because it had run its course. But it left a
cleaner city and healthier citizens behind. As for the ‘Maharaja
for a Day’…people now stared at him with admiration
and respect. And referred to him as “the old Sahib who charmed
away the plague”.